Asset Explorer Manageengine Pricing

[Lynne Pruskowski]

ManageEngineis the Enterprise IT Management division of ZOHO Corp, a prolific business solutions provider. ManageEngine AssetExplorer offers a wealth of tools to help you manage all your software and hardware assets in every phase of the asset life cycle, from planning and procurement to disposal.

You can get a taste of how this ITAM program works through the free or trial editions of the software, or request a live demo via the ManageEngine website. The free version never expires, but it only allows you to manage up to 25 assets. The free trial lets you manage up to 250 assets for up to 30 days.

ManageEngine AssetExplorer prices its annual licenses based on the number of assets you manage. Annual maintenance and support fees start at $955 for up to 250 assets and go up to $11,995 for up to 10,000 assets; you can upgrade your subscription to accommodate even more assets. See chart below.

Recommended hardware requirements for AssetExplorer are 3.0 GHz, 12 MB to 20 MB cache, six to eight cores or equivalent technology, 8/16 GB RAM and 2 TB free SSD. Browsers supported include Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer (IE 11 and IE Edge).

Monitoring and managing your IT assets is serious business, and ManageEngine AssetExplorer has been helping companies stay on top of digital and hardware assets for more than ten years. This ITAM tool is used across 185 countries and is available in 37 languages. AssetExplorer can help you manage up to 30,000 IT assets.

Like other popular asset management managers such as Ivanti and Asset Panda, ManageEngine AssetExplorer performs essential asset management functions such as monitoring software usage, software license renewal and compliance tracking, and purchase order management.

ManageEngine AssetExplorer is upfront about its pricing for premium coverage, unlike its competitors. AssetExplorer is the only provider that offers a free option, which is a nice benefit for small businesses with limited assets to manage.

The key upside to ManageEngine AssetExplorer is that it works well for small businesses with just a few hundred assets to manage but scales easily to accommodate the thousands of assets common in enterprise environments.

As the number of IT tools your company manages grows, so does the complexity of managing usage, license compliance mandates, renewal dates, asset configuration, cost tracking and suppliers. Software management tools like ManageEngine AssetExplorer help you effectively manage all your assets in one place.

ManageEngine AssetExplorer has a slightly involved pricing structure that begins at $795 per year for 250 IT assets. You'll need to talk to ManageEngine sales folk for more details regarding your particular quote. However, that talk is worth it as this is a mature IT asset management package that's backed by a company whose popularity as an IT tool kit provider has been growing steadily in recent years. Additionally, ManageEngine (a division of the Zoho Corporation) focuses on task-oriented IT tools rather than large IT frameworks where you'll likely wind up paying for capabilities you don't need. Even though its overall features haven't changed much since we last reviewed it a couple of years ago, ManageEngine AssetExplorer still manages to stand out from the competition thanks to advanced features such as excellent reporting and relationship maps. As a result, it receives our Editors' Choice designation in our asset management software review roundup.

ManageEngine AssetExplorer includes 24/7 technical support at all subscription levels, which is something else that sets it apart from the others in this roundup. Support for virtual hosts and virtual machines (VMs) is included, which is noticeably rare. There's also support for business Voice-over-IP (VoIP) phones, though not other mobile platforms, which is a marked weakness if you're managing a lot of mobiles devices. In that situation, you'll need to rely on a dedicated mobile device management (MDM) tool, such as VMware AirWatch, our Editors' Choice winner in the MDM category. Those aren't bad tools for asset management when it concerns only mobile devices, but you'll also be paying for advanced device health and security management, which might be overkill (and overpriced) for your needs if all you want to do is track asset information.

However, non-networked devices can be manually entered, which allows them to be tracked and reported, and can, potentially, allow AssetExplorer to track a wide variety of other physical assets even outside the IT sphere. The ability to manage various vendor relationships is likely more attractive to larger companies than to small to midsize businesses (SMBs) but that's dependent on the context of your organization. For large companies distributed across locations, for example, ManageEngine AssetExplorer might offer more flexibility. For a small company, the free version is still worth considering if the number of nodes offered is sufficient.

Getting started with ManageEngine AssetManager is fairly simple as you're able to download a fully functional free trial for 30 days (one which you can later choose to use). ManageEngine AssetExplorer's greatest strength may initially throw you because that strength is maturity and exposure to a large number of enterprise-class customers; this has made ManageEngine AssetExplorer a very feature-rich solution. For those new to asset management, all of that capability may be daunting at first.

For example, the somewhat dated and slightly cluttered user interface (UI) is centered around an asset management module that has 13 tabs, three drop-down menus, and six menu items available from the first moment you log on. In some cases, it feels overwhelming and even confusing. But if you use the Quick Links feature to focus on just the tasks you want to accomplish, most IT professionals will quickly feel comfortable, even as new users. The UI isn't as polished as some of the newer competitors' UIs, such as SolarWinds Web Help Desk (700.00 Per User Per Year at SolarWinds MSP) , which aren't supporting so many features; however, IT professionals used to working in Microsoft Windows will feel at home.

This plethora of options extends to device discovery, too. When first adding assets, the sheer number of ways you can initiate a device scan is a bit overwhelming. When you click on the Admin tab, you have choices for Credentials Library, Distributed Asset Scan, Network Scan, Remote Control Tools, Scan Settings, Schedule Scan, Stand Alone Workstation Audit, Windows Agent Configuration, and Windows Domain Scan. Compared to competitors, even ones with a higher-end feature set such as Ivanti IT Asset Management Suite , this seems more than a little complicated.

However, once you understand that many of these are just customized versions of the same scan, and many are also duplicated in the UI over in the Scan tab, you start to relax. The Windows Agent Configuration option is a simple way to install your Windows Agent on a new device. The Network Scan option let me get the Mac devices from the Design department into tracked assets. Workstation/Device scan will let you perform a more granular search on network connected assets, allowing you to see the detailed status sooner. Distributed Asset Scan and CSV Import both work to allow you to import devices that may not be networked to you directly. Last but not least, the Remote Control Tools are installed on the client machine, and allow you to remotely access your Windows and Mac computers from other Windows and/or Mac computers once the client and server-side tools are installed and configured.

Reports are one area in which ManageEngine AssetExplorer's maturity and feature richness becomes especially useful regardless of employee technical skill. In addition to about 30 canned reports, all of which you can edit and customize, you can export in multiple formats and see all existing queries for past reports. There's a UI for creating completely customized reports from scratch, and you can schedule reports not just to run but also to get emailed to specific recipients in any of five formats: CSV, HTML, Inline HTML, PDF, or XLS.

The relationship maps are one of the features that make ManageEngine AssetExplorer unique. Relationships are built by Configuration Item (CI) type and are meant to let you track the dependencies between CIs. To configure relationships, go to the Admin tab, then to the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) heading, and view and edit Configuration Item Types, Relationship Types, and Impact. You can also import CIs from a CSV file. You can set up default attributes and relationships by CI type, which means future assets will have the default relationships and show up in the relationship map once that CI type is assigned. As scans or status updates manually change on assets, the relationship maps will be updated to show those changes as ManageEngine AssetExplorer becomes aware of them.

Using ManageEngine AssetExplorer on a mobile browser is possible which, for simpler tasks, could be handy when technicians are handling repair tickets and troubleshooting issues when not at their desks. But, because of the application's somewhat complicated UI, navigating on mobile devices is difficult. An application specifically designed for mobile users would be easier, especially if it took job roles into account. This is mostly because there are so many features and small UI components.

While ServiceNow ($10,200.00 at Software Advice) and Ivanti IT Asset Management Suite also provides a larger IT helpdesk solution, ManageEngine AssetExplorer's ease of setup and nice price differentiates it from the rest of the field, and earns it our Editors' Choice.

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